Cleaning Ozone Monitor

To clean the ozone monitor, we went into the PACTS lab at The Franklin Institute in order to access a fume hood and compressed air. First, we put on gloves and goggles. Then, we unscrewed and took off the top of the ozone monitor. We temporarily removed other pieces of tubing that had become so dirty over the past two summers that it had gone from clear to yellow in color.

Working under the fume hood in order to not breathe in evaporated methanol, we squirted methanol through the tubing with a beaker at one end to catch the methanol that dripped through. Then, we sent pressurized air through the tubing to push out any remaining dirt and methanol. After attaching temporary tubing to both the intake and outtake of the monitor, we squirted methanol and then pressurized air through the ozone monitor itself while it was turned on. Then, we replaced the scrubber, which is the part of the monitor that prevents ozone from leaving the monitor once it enters using active charcoal, and put the monitor back together. This process removed much of the dirt in the monitor, but not all. We need to replace some parts that are still very dirty. Also, before we could put the monitor back outside, we needed to calibrate it. More on calibrating in an upcoming post.